Metro Washington Council afl-cio

quoting a letter from a miner who died in the Upper Big Branch blast and had feared for his life.

​“There was a young man named Josh Napper. I know his family. Twenty-five years old, wrote a letter to his mother, his fiance and his baby, and said if I die, I want you to know I love you. Now that's the kind of letter people used to write going to Vietnam.”

photo: monument in Whitesville, W.Va to the 29 killed in the Big Branch Mine explosion.